Mette Jacobsgaard

Convener of the Lincoln Workshop Series.

Mette is an organisation and development aid consultant with a background in law and social and political sciences from University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Cambridge University, UK. She has worked with Appreciative Inquiry since 1994 and was one of the first to be trained in Appreciative Inquiry in Europe. Mette is a member of the NTL Institute for Applied Human Behavioural Science and among a group of 22 Founding Partners in Appreciative Inquiry Consulting – an organisation that is committed to advancing work of significant and enduring consequence through the development of people and organisations that lead – organisations, industries, and individuals that are working in a positively correlated way toward a world future of: (1) prosperous and sustainable economic development; (2) human and ecological well-being; and (3) an awakening to a set of higher values (emerging global ethics) that are able to inspire human action in the service of the widest possible goal.

Mette has worked for 27 years in the field of international development in a wide spectrum of cases and countries. Her client base stretches from grass roots development projects in rural Africa and Asia to high-level work with governments, ministries and judiciaries world-wide. In addition, Mette is a trained mediator and has worked with mediation and conflict resolution in diverse environments.

Mette also works as a trainer of Appreciative Inquiry and trains groups both in Europe as well as in Africa, Asia and the US. A number of grass roots training interventions in Africa and Asia have been conducted over the years where the goals of the projects have been to advance progress toward sustainable development and to facilitate sustainable livelihoods by providing governmental and non-governmental organisations with a better method of designing and delivering programmes.

Mette has used AI as an approach that facilitated communities, organisations, projects and NGOs move beyond participatory problem and needs analysis. The focus has been on identifying and building on past achievements and existing strengths within a community, establishing consensus around a shared vision of the future, and constructing strategies and partnerships to achieve this vision.

”What excites me most in my practice is applying AI to diverse and mixed cultural situations and situations of conflict. In addition, I continue to develop AI for embedded evaluation.”